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Comment by SilverRed | Hacker News Reader

>Specifically, some elder people are so bored

This sounds like a problem on its own. We should avoid having people bored with nothing to do. Letting them sit on a train all day might actually be a very cheap way to entertain them and improve their lives.

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In a way, maybe this really is one of the ways of fixing that boredom. You give them empty seats which wouldn't be filled and they are less bored. In any case, I feel like in eastern Europe 95% of retired people are bored every day for the rest of their life. If they aren't doing gardening or people watching there is nothing else they know how to do except watch TV.

Lol just a thought but I’m imagining being one of those people you mentioned and I would feel like a sim!

In Eastern Europe most of the old people get out at 6 going to the park benches and talking all day (in warmer months; if living in towns/cities)

The other spend almost all day gardening/field work and, like you said, watch TV.

However, I am concerned for the working-age people, as noone really seems to have a hobby. Most people just scroll Facebook and watching TV. In most circles, you might even be looked at funny for spending money on a hobby that isn't fishing or hunting (like playing around with electronics, without making money off of it)

Talking to whom? At 75 half your friends and family are dead. At 80+ you are pretty much alone except for children and grandchildren if you have them

I wonder what is the cost of accelerating 60kg to 40km/h every 2 minutes for a day.

Probably less than many other forms of entertainment.

I'd say its almost free compared to the alternatives like community programs/activities. It doesn't sound as fulfilling but if someone can entertain themselves by sitting on their own on a train, let them go at it.

Approximately 0.03% of the cost of accelerating the locomotive by itself.

Given m = 60 kg and v = 40 km/h, the kinetic energy is

  K = 1/2 * m * v^2 = 3.703 kJ

Acceleration is not going to be 100% efficient, so let's round that up to 10 kJ. We also need to decelerate, so let's assume the same amount of energy being put in to do that. 20 kJ every 2 minutes for 12 hours comes out to 2 kWh total. For electric trains, you can map that to a cost using your local electricity prices, but keep in mind that public transit operators purchase electricity wholesale and probably get a cheaper price than residential users.

(Also note that my estimations are intentionally pessimistic to map out the worst-case scenario. Energy efficiency is probably better than my assumptions, and trains may have some sort of regenerative braking.)

In large cities, there are many many things that elders can do, and many elder groups/clubs doing many different things. Sitting on train and taking space away from people who actually need to get somewhere is a bad solution.

Those clubs cost money to run if they are funded by the government. The per seat cost of public transport is pretty low comparatively.

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